The Grenada sentinel., 1887-02-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on Wise Men Who
Play the Fool For a Purpose.


Men WHO Allow the TechnicalitIes of Re-
iigion to Impede Their salvation
Wise In Great Thin e.. but Mere Babes
In Relation to Things Eternal
Rev T. Dewitt Talmage, In recent SER
mon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, dls.
csursed on some OF the weaknesses OF
mankind. taking for his text:
And he changed his behavior before them,
snd fegned himself mad in their hands, and
sc,abbled on the doors OF the gate, and let his
spittle fall down Hpon his beard.-I Sam, XXI,
H.
E.s said: There is 0de scene in the life OF
David that you may not have pondered.
You have seen him with harp PLAYING
the devil out of Saul; with sling, smash
ing the skull of Goliath; with sword,
hacking to pieces the Philistines; with
seepter, ruling vast realm; with psalm,
gathering all nations into doxology; but
in my text you have David playing the
fool. He has been anointed King, yet he is
in exile and passing ;ncognito among the
Gathites. They begin TO suspect who ne
is, and say:
II wonder il this is not the warrior King
David! 1t looks like him. Is not this the
man about whom they used to make
poetry, and about whom they composed a
dance, so that the maidens of the city,
lceling now on one foot and now on the
other, used to sing: Saul has slain his
thousands but David has slain his tens OF
thousands. Yes, it is very much like
David 1t must be David. 1t is David"
David, to escape their hands, pretends
TO be demented He said within himself:
If actcrazily, then these people will
NOT injure me. No one would be so much
of coward as to assault a madman."
SO, one day, while these Gathites are
watching David with increased suspicion,
they see him standing by the door running
his hands meaninglessly up and down the
panels-scrabbling on the door as though
he would climb up, his mouth wide open,
drooling like an infant. suppose the
boys of the streets threw missiles at him.
but the sober people of the town said:
This is not fair. Do you not see that
he has lost his reasons Do not touch this
madman. Hands off! hands off,"
So David escaped; but what an exhibi.
ton he made of himself before all the
ages There was a majesty in King
Lear's madness after Regan and Goneril,
his daughters, had pursuaded him to
Danish their sister Cordelia, and all the
friends of the drama have been thrilled
with that spectacle. The craziness of
Meg Merrilles was weird and imposing
and the most toiling passage in Walter
Scott's "Guy Mannering." There was a
fascination about the insanity of Alex
ander Crudeu, who made the best con-
cordance Of the Bible that the world ever
saw-made it between the mad-houses
Some time ago, while | was visiting the
insane asylum on Blackwells Island, a
iemended woman came up to me and said,
most tragic style:
God moves in mysterious way,
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea.
And rides upon the storm.
But there was nothing grand, nothing
weird, nothing majestic, nothing sublime,
about the stimulation on the part Of David.
Instead of trusting in the Lord, as he had
On other occasions, he gathers before him
a vast audience Of all generations that
we're to come, and standing on that con.
sp!cuons stage of history, in the presence
Of all the ages, he impersonates the slav
ering idiot.
And he changed hts behavior before them,
and feigned himself mad in their hands. and
serabbled at the door Of the gate, and let his
spitale fall upon his beard.
Taking the behavior of David as sug.
gestion, wish to tell you how many Of
the wise, and the brave, and the regal
sometimes play the fool And in the first
place remark that those men as badly
play the fool as this man Of the text, who
in any crisis of life, take their cases out
Of tho hand of God. David, in this case
acted as though there were no God to lif
him out of this predicament. What
a contrast between his behavior
when this brave little man stood up in
front OF the giant ten feet in height, ant
looking into his face said:
Thou comest to me with sword and with
spear, and with shield; but come to thee il
the name Of the Lord of Hosts, the God Of tn
armies Of Israel, whom thou hast defied. Thi
day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hant
and will smite thee, and take thine hea
from thee and will give tae carcasses OF til
hosts Of the Phiiistines this day unto the fowl
OF the air, and to the wild beasts of the earti
that oil the earth may know that there is q Go
in Israel.
Between that time and this time, whe
he debased himself, and bedraggled hi
manhood, and affected insanity in orde
that he might escape from the grip of tn
Gathites. In the one case he played tn
hero. In the other case he played the fool
So does every man who, in the great crisi
of life, takes his case out of the hand o
God. The life OF the most insignifican
man in this house is too vast for any hi
man management One time, returnin
from the West, very easily got on tn
locomotive while passing over the plains
and talked with the engineer; but comm
on toward the Allegheny Mountains,
thought would like to sit on the locomC
tive as it came down from the mountain
amidst that most wonderful scenery o
this continent. l asked the engineer If
might ride, but he courteously denied mC
for there the grade is so steep, and SO wint
ing, and 50 perilous, that he must not hav
any one on the locomotive who may d
vert his attention whe. eye and hand an
foot and brain must be conoentered, read
for the most sudden emergency. Wei
my friends, life is SO steep, and 80 peri
GUS, and SO exposed to sudden surprise
that none but the Lord Almighty can guit
and engineer 1t, and our disasters con
from the fact that we want to get up al
help the Lord to manage the train.
Keep off the engine! Be willing to Il
God pull you where he wants to pull yo
Fn, inp a n air